Students take part in ‘Relay for Recess’

Thursday

May 9, 2013 at 1:03 PMMay 9, 2013 at 1:06 PM

Luke Smucker

For the second time this year, students at Washington School are raising money to fight cancer. Currently they are raising money for the American Cancer Society as part of Relay for Recess, a student-oriented division of Relay for Life. This time, however, the effort to raise money is also being contributed to by the rest of District #429 schools and at the end of the week, the district hopes to reach its goal of raising $1,000.“We always have a Relay for Life team within the school district,” said Washington School Nurse Rachel Lee, “but Becky Dunham was made aware of a student program called Relay for Recess and we decide to try it for the first time this year.”Each school has a coordinator responsible for organizing their part in the fundraiser. Lee is the organizer at Washington School, Dunham is covering Pontiac Junior High School, nurse Shelly Murphy is covering Central School and Mary Ashlock is the organizer for Lincoln School. What coordinators liked about the event is the daily educational component. Lee explained there is a teaching element involved with Relay for Recess that gives the students a different topic to learn about each day. On Monday, students throughout the district were taught about the importance of physical activity and the impact it has on their health. Tuesday was sun safety, in which students were taught about the importance of wearing sun block, staying away from tanning beds and other tips to help prevent skin cancer. Wednesday highlighted nutrition and students learned about what foods are important to eat and have in their daily diet. Today is tobacco prevention day, where students will learn all the adverse health effects of tobacco use and Friday is Relay Day. Central students will complete a lap because of their young age and at Washington, each class signed up for 15-minute increments.“They will be walking laps for 15 minutes per class behind the school,” said Lee. “Basically, it spaced out so that we will have someone walking all day long, minus the time we take for lunch. So, we should have someone out there representing and walking — weather permitting.”Students at Washington also participated in Jump Rope for Life in late January. Lee said it has been a very inspirational year for Washington students and staff alike. She marveled at the positive and proactive ways the students have stepped up. Like both Jump Rope for Heart and Relay for Life, the goal is to raise donations. Washington students are also selling “relay feet.” Lee said students or people from the community may come to Washington and purchase a paper foot for a $1 and are asked to write the name of a loved one who has been impacted in some way by cancer. The feet are then put on display across the walls in the halls of the building.“We have already have $100 worth of feet purchased since Monday and we have students who are collecting donations to turn in at the end of the week as well. So just like jump rope for heart, they are very positive and proactive about raising funds.”While Jump Rope for Heart had a personal face for the students in Principal Josh Delong’s Niece, two-year-old Shelby DeLong of Dwight who has undergone several heart surgeries, the Relay for Recess has a face in a Washington student who was recently diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and is currently going through treatment.“This is a recent discovery and it has impacted a lot of our students,” said Lee. “When something unfortunate like this happens, everybody wants to try and help in some way. So, it correlated, unfortunately, with Relay for Recess and a lot of students are compelled to help because of that. They are purchasing the feet and honoring the student and everybody wore green Wednesday in his honor. There has been a really positive response from our school for this boy.”The program is scheduled to continue through the end of this week, making Friday the last day for any school in the district to receive Relay for Recess donations. Lee said she spoke for herself and the rest of the Relay for Recess team in saying that anybody who wants to make donations can always make them, regardless of the date, to the American Cancer Society. “We would definitely appreciate the community’s support,” said Lee. “This is the first year we have held it, we just were not sure what to expect. Dunham came across the program late in the year, so there was a lot of spur the moment coordination and we set our sights at $1,000. I am not sure where we’re at, but we’ve had such a wonderful response with the relay feet here at Washington. I think cancer is a very scary word for people of any age and I like that we are educating students about it and helping them find ways to be pro-active. The students have responded really and it’s been very humbling to see the students so positive about it.”

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